Secondary English Language Arts: Revised ed:TPA Lesson Plan Template

Name: Rachel Sassine

Lesson Title: Historical Context for The

Things They Carried

Grade Level: 10

Lesson Goals
Central Focus: Describe the central focus (of the unit) and explain how this lesson reflects the central focus.

To explore what we carry with us, synthesizing narrative strategies from mentor texts and creating personal narratives with thematic
elements that reflect individual growth experiences
This lesson will give students the opportunity to read and discuss various articles on differing perspectives of the Vietnam
War. This will provide students with texts that will give a strong context to the novel they are going to encounter, as well as
the ability to discuss and argue their topic. This will establish a framework for reflection and growth.
List the title, author, and write a short description of the text(s) used in this lesson.

The Things They Carried, Tim OBrien- Set in the dual theatres of VC occupied Vietnam and the Americana life back home, The
Things They Carried offers a deeply moving account of a small unit of men that must learn to endure both the unfamiliarities of war in
an unaccustomed country as well as the hardships that it brings. Each character is affected by the death of Ted Lavender, the first one in
the Alpha Chapter to die, and they try to cope with and justify it. As they share their narratives of the brutalities and grief that they face,
the characters cope by using humour and alternate versions of the truth. The protagonist and main narrator, Tim OBrien, also speaks to
the audience during several chapters about the power of stories and what makes a true versus effective narrative about the war.
Ultimately, he says that the difference between a true story and a good story is sometimes minimal, as many details are blurred,
ignored, and supplemented in order to capture the moment.
The Vietnam War in the 1968 Interviews - This piece provides students with various quotes from soldiers who fought in
the Vietnam War. The quotes cover multiple topics including the actual war, being drafted, and returning home.
History and Hindsight: Lessons from Vietnam- The second article provides students with the perspective of a journalist at
the close of the war. It is one week after the war has officially ended, and he is looking back on the statistics and facts of the
war.
Vietnam War Protests- The third piece focuses on the citizens back home and their reaction to the Vietnam War. It

discusses protests, draft dodging, and college campus violence.

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework (draw from research and readings in CI and English coursework:
I begin my lesson with a quick write to give the students an opportunity to perform low stakes writing each day. It
is allows the students to be reflective of their work and their progress, as well as make connections to the work
they will do (Burke 121). Burke also notes that it is important to provide readers with various points of view and
interpretation of events to become knowledgeable on a subject and well-rounded readers (145). Therefore, I will
be including three different articles focusing on three different perspectives. I will also include some from
interviews, as well as print media to aid in the variation.

Standard(s) Addressed (use examples from both the Common Core State Standards and the Illinois Professional Teaching
Standards):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.C
Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas; actively
incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped
and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
IPTS Standard 2 - Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area
knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher
creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and
evidence-based practice.
IPTS Standard 4 - Learning Environment The competent teacher structures a safe and healthy learning environment that facilitates
cultural and linguistic responsiveness, emotional well-being, self-efficacy, positive social interaction, mutual respect, active
engagement, academic risk-taking, self-motivation, and personal goal-setting.

Recall your central focus and explain how the standards (above) and learning objectives (below), that you have identified, support
students learning:
This lesson will give students the opportunity to read and discuss various articles on differing perspectives of the Vietnam
War. This will provide students with texts that will give a strong context to the novel they are going to encounter, as well as
the ability to discuss and argue their topic. This will establish a framework for reflection and growth.
Materials/ Instructional Resources: Articles (listed above and below), K-W-L chart, quick write prompt, writing utensil, and paper
*Learning Objectives (Add additional objective boxes as
needed):

*Assessment (both formal and informal)- Evidence of Student

Understanding:

Objective 1: Students will be able to summarize the text

they are given and identify the main points.

Related Assessment:
K-W-L Chart
Discussions with groups

Explain the Assessments Alignment with the Objective:

K-W-L Chart- This will demonstrates students knowledge of
the Vietnam War from the previous day or other class, as well
as the article they read. It will also display their ability to
identify the main points of their article (L) as well as others.
Discussions with groups- Students will be discussing their
main points and article topics with their groups, which will
demonstrate a knowledge of their topic and text.

Describe the form of Student feedback that accompanies

the assessment:
K-W-L Chart- I will make comments on these after I collect
them at the end of the lesson. I will focus on correcting or
praising the K and L sections.

Discussions with groups- I will give verbal feedback as I walk

about to the groups on their discussions.

Objective 2: Students will be able to explain and/or argue

their articles perspective to other students.

Related Assessment:
Discussions with groups

Explain the Assessments Alignment with the Objective:

Discussions with groups- This will demonstrate students
abilities to communicate their thoughts and topic to their
groups. This will show comprehension of the article topic and
perspective.

Describe the form of Student feedback that accompanies

the assessment:
Discussions with groups- I will give verbal feedback as I walk
about to the groups on their discussions.

Lesson Considerations
Pre-Assessment:
Prior Academic Learning and Prerequisite Skills: (Cite evidence that describes what students know, what they can

do, and what they are still learning to do.)

A brief overview of the Vietnam War was given the day before, so students will have a basic understanding of the war. A

majority of them will be unfamiliar with the specific details of the war. As for the articles, they should be familiar with
reading and summarizing articles, as they have done this in the previous unit.

Personal, cultural, and community assets related to the central focusExplain what you know about your students
everyday experiences, cultural and language backgrounds and practices, and interests.
Students may have parents or grandparents that fought in the Vietnam War and may be sensitive to some of the
issues. They may also have strong opinions about some of the topics covered in the book. Some students, such
as our Congolese student, may have a cultural experience or history that is relevant, which they can touch on in
class.
Misconceptions:
Students might not believe that the quotes are told by actual people. This lesson could also confuse them as the book is
told by an actual veteran, but it is historical fiction not an autobiography.

Language Objectives and Demands

Identify a Language Function:
Interpret
Language Function. Using information about your students language assets and needs, identify one language function essential
for students within your central focus. Listed below are some sample language functions. You may choose one of these or another
more appropriate language function for this lesson.
Analyze

Argue

Describe

Evaluate

Explain

Interpret

Justify

Synthesize

Vocabulary:

Draft
Tet Offensive
Communism
Nam
Learning and Linguistic Accommodations: Describe the instructional accommodations that you must make, as the classroom
teacher, in order to address the learning needs of students with special needs and students who are not English proficient or
students who use varieties of English.
Accommodations for students with Special Needs:

For our student with autism, I will speak with the Special Education teacher and discuss the students IEP or 504 plan in
order to create appropriate lesson accommodations that best fit the childs needs.
Accommodations for students who are not proficient uses of Standard English:

Their article will be translated into French. During discussions, they will be paired with strong readers, so that they can ask
their peers questions and work together.
Explain your instructional decision-making and the way you plan to support student learning when using whole class,
small groups, and individualized assignments. In addition, explain accommodations for students who have
special needs and students who are not proficient users of Standard English as part of whole class and small
group arrangements
Because this will be building off of a topic that was new for students in the previous lesson, I have chosen to do a lot of
small group work. This will allow the students to work off of each other and share what they learned the previous day. This
will allow them to grow in their learning, so that later, they will be able to do the readings on their own. For the student with
autism, I will speak with the Special education instructor about the IEP. For the ELL, I will pair this student with strong

readers to support their learning.

Time

*Lesson Plan Details

Lesson Introduction
1. Students enter into the classroom and sit in their assigned seats.
2. There will be a quick write posted on the board.
3. Students will write on the prompt for 5 minutes (~ 1/2 page) Prompt: What do you recall from yesterdays
lesson about the Vietnam War? What did you already know? Is there anything you would like to learn?
Elaborate.
Learning Activities 1. Students will receive a K-W-L chart.
2. They will use their quick write response to fill in the first 2 columns.
3. Students will be placed into pre-assigned groups (based on their reading levels).
4. Each group will be assigned an article to read.
5. They are to read the article as a group and generate a summary of the article as a group.
6. They will then briefly annotate it.
7. They will fill in the Learn (L) section of their K-W-L chart for their article only.
8. Students in each group will number off 1-5. (jigsaw discussion)
9. All the 1s will sit together, 2s will sit together, 3s will sit together, etc.
10. Each student will then summarize their article to their new group members and read their main points.
11. They will discuss the merits of each article and biases of each as well.
12. They will complete their charts.
13. Once this is finished, we will come together as a whole class and read the first 5 pages of the novel, The
Things They Carried.

Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments, including a written product, will provide direct evidence of

students abilities to construct meaning from, interpret, OR respond to a complex text throughout the learning segment.
The K-W-L chart and group discussions will provide insight into their readings. I will be able to determine if they understood
the main points of the article and the perspective based on their responses both written and verbal.

Closure
Students will write a prediction for the rest of the first chapter.
Extension
Students can begin reading their homework for the night and matching their predictions to the text.

Resources and References (use APA or MLA listing the information from the conceptual framework above as
well as from any other categories where cited a source):
Burke, Jim. The English Teacher's Companion: A Completely New Guide to Classroom, Curriculum, and the Profession.
Fourth ed. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2013. Print.
Mohr, Charles. "History and Hindsight: Lessons from Vietnam." New York Times. 30 April 1985. Online.
"The Vietnam War in the 1968 Interviews." The Vietnam War in the 1968 Interviews. Ed. Linda Wood. Brown University,
1995. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
"Vietnam War Protests." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Attachments: handouts, assessments, etc.

ARTICLE 1
Jesus, we rained more bombs, more terror on that country than in the history, than has ever been visited upon any place
in the history of the world. We were fighting a war that couldn't be won. The answer is not to try to win, the answer's to
try to get the hell out. -Dan Prentis
...what we were trying to do was the right thing. I think anybody that, that says that we were somehow morally wrong
hasn't read very much about communism, hasn't taken a look very much at what happened to that country after the
communists won. -Theodore Gatchel
...it was frightening sometimes, we got hit, and it was frightening to be in combat, but at the same time it was incredibly
eye-opening. We would go out on missions sometimes and nothing would happen, and you would sit and realize what a
beautiful place it was you would sit up on a mountain at night and look out and just, it's a stunning country, and you
would think, why is this happening?" -Bob Kerr
...in the night particularly, usually they would come up near our camp and sort of fire, fire into it, or fire over our heads
and you'd hear bullets whizzing by and, you know, it's sort of a real eye opener to think that somebody you didn't even
know was trying to kill... -Ed Wood
...I think that that was the first time on our television screens that we actually saw war being played out live at six, and I
think that the impact on the American psyche was absolutely clear-cut and also the fact that we were not clearly
winning the War. The Americans always have a belief that winning is everything. -E.Gordon Gee
I think that many veterans got a chance when they came back from `Nam... to feel how it felt to be black because we
were all treated that way you know, that kind of hostility and indifference. And so it was a time of people who hadn't
really been discriminated against or treated that way, like pariahs, got a chance to be treated that way. -Cleveland Kurtz
I remember walking into [the draft examination room]...and it looked...like a slaughter house, and they had us take off
our clothes, and we all sat there and bent over... and I got this distinct image of cattle being led off to the slaughter,

which is what was happening. Here was the US government getting all us young kids, and you know, eventually at the
end of the line, was somebody, and you either killed them or they killed you. -Tony Ramos

ARTICLE 2:
HISTORY AND HINDSIGHT: LESSONS FROM
VIETNAM
By CHARLES MOHR, Special to the New York Times
Published: April 30, 1985
WASHINGTON, April 29 For a month the public has been immersed in a flood of retrospection and introspection about
the Vietnam War, which ended 10 years ago Tuesday. The outpouring indicates that many people are at least as interested in
revising history as understanding it.
It has been a time for recalling battles but also for refighting them verbally as some try to apply the lessons of Vietnam to still
unsettled ideological disputes and to current political controversies, notably in Central America.
The conflicting interpretations and re-interpretations of America's last major war may be especially bewildering to those who
were born after the start of the United States' direct involvement in Vietnam or those who were very young at the time. Both
public opinion sampling by polltakers and empirical evidence indicate that the origins, rationales and purposes of the American
experience in Vietnam, and the conduct of American officials and soldiers, are obscure to many people.
But some of the main outlines of what a retired general has called ''the one clear failure'' in American military history are clear.
The war was, of course, a vast human tragedy and contributed directly to nearly immeasurable suffer- The author of this article,
who reports on military affairs from the Washington bureau of The Times, was a correspondent in Indochina for five years. ing

after it ended. It is clearly significant to recall the postwar genocide in neighboring Cambodia, punitive repression by the
victorious Vietnamese Communists and the sad saga of refugees from all three countries - Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos - that
once were French Indochina.
But to that accounting it is also useful to add the long effort to forestall failure that cost 58,721 American lives.
The Defense Department says that 183,528 South Vietnamese regular soldiers died and estimates that 925,000 North
Vietnamese regular troops and guerrillas were killed. The number of civilian deaths in South Vietnam was put at 415,000 and
the civilian deaths in the North were also large, but uncertain.
Defeat cost dearly, but so did the effort to achieve victory. No one can guess what the price would have been to continue, or to
resume, the conflict in the mid-1970's. Forgotten Mileposts Of Vietnam War Among the sometimes forgotten historical
mileposts of the war are these:
* The United States originally sought to avoid entanglement in combat through a plan to create a durable South Vietnamese
Army and society.
* When increasing North Vietnamese infiltration caused that hope to falter, American troops were sent in force. This was
matched by North Vietnamese escalation, in a pattern that would continue throughout the conflict.
* Domestic support for the war eroded as the cost in lives rose.
* ''Vietnamization'' of the war, a gradual turning over of the fighting to the South Vietnamese Army, was substituted for the
politically unpalatable course of rapid, outright withdrawal by President Nixon in 1969. During the American withdrawal, South
Vietnam achieved apparent progress from 1969 to early 1972, suppressing but never strangling the military challenge to its
existence.

* In 1972, the North invaded the South directly, using more artillery than it had ever displayed and large amounts of seldomseen equipment such as tanks. That ''Easter Offensive'' was beaten back with the aid of very heavy, and effective, United States
bombing.
* The ''cease-fire'' negotiated in 1973 was a strategic compromise that left more than 100,000 North Vietnamese troops in South
Vietnam, and that did not extinguish the North's determination to fight on.
* In the end, South Vietnam was overrun in 1975 in a period of less than two months by a greatly reinforced Northern field
army. The United States did not attempt to reverse the rout by re-entering the conflict. Some of the Footprints Are Now Faint
There were, however, many footprints between those milestones, and some have tended to fade with time.

ARTICLE 3:
VIETNAM WAR PROTESTS: THE BEGINNINGS OF A MOVEMENT
The movement against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began smallamong peace activists and leftist intellectuals on
college campusesbut gained national prominence in 1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest.
Anti-war marches and other protests, such as the ones organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), attracted a
widening base of support over the next three years, peaking in early 1968 after the successful Tet Offensive by North
Vietnamese troops proved that wars end was nowhere in sight.
In August 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, and President Lyndon B.
Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. And by the time U.S. planes began regular
bombings of North Vietnam in February 1965, some critics had begun to question the governments assertion that it was
fighting a democratic war to liberate the South Vietnamese people from Communist aggression.
The anti-war movement began mostly on college campuses, as members of the leftist organization Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS) began organizing teach-ins to express their opposition to the way in which it was being conducted. Though the
vast majority of the American population still supported the administration policy in Vietnam, a small but outspoken liberal
minority was making its voice heard by the end of 1965. This minority included many students as well as prominent artists and
intellectuals and members of the hippie movement, a growing number of young people who rejected authority and embraced
the drug culture.

WIDESPREAD DISILLUSIONMENT
By November 1967, American troop strength in Vietnam was approaching 500,000 and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058
killed and 109,527 wounded. TheVietnam War was costing the U.S. some $25 billion per year, and disillusionment was
beginning to reach greater sections of the taxpaying public. More casualties were reported in Vietnam every day, even as U.S.
commanders demanded more troops. Under the draft system, as many as 40,000 young men were called into service each
month, adding fuel to the fire of the anti-war movement.
On October 21, 1967, one of the most prominent anti-war demonstrations took place, as some 100,000 protesters gathered at
the Lincoln Memorial; around 30,000 of them continued in a march on the Pentagon later that night. After a brutal
confrontation with the soldiers and U.S. Marshals protecting the building, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. One of
them was the author Norman Mailer, who chronicled the events in his book The Armies of the Night, published the following
year to widespread acclaim. Also in 1967, the anti-war movement got a big boost when the civil rights leader Martin Luther King
Jr. went public with his opposition to the war on moral grounds, condemning the wars diversion of federal funds from
domestic programs as well as the disproportionate number of African-American casualties in relation to the total number of
soldiers killed in the war.
POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF VIETNAM WAR PROTESTS
The launch of the Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese communist troops in January 1968, and its success against U.S. and South
Vietnamese troops, sent waves of shock and discontent across the home front and sparked the most intense period of anti-war
protests to date. By early February 1968, a Gallup poll showed only 35 percent of the population approved of Johnsons
handling of the war and a full 50 percent disapproved (the rest had no opinion). Joining the anti-war demonstrations by this
time were members of the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War, many of whom were in wheelchairs and on

crutches. The sight of these men on television throwing away the medals they had won during the war did much to win people
over to the anti-war cause.
After many New Hampshire primary voters rallied behind the anti-war Democrat Eugene McCarthy, Johnson announced that
he would not seek reelection. Vice President Hubert Humphrey accepted the Democratic nomination in August inChicago, and
10,000 anti-war demonstrators showed up outside the convention building, clashing with security forces assembled by
Mayor Richard Daley. Humphrey lost the 1968 presidential election to Richard M. Nixon, who promised in his campaign to
restore law and ordera reference to conflict over anti-war protests as well as the rioting that followed Kings assassination in
1968more effectively than Johnson had.
The following year, Nixon claimed in a famous speech that anti-war protesters constituted a smallalbeit vocalminority that
should not be allowed to drown out the silent majority of Americans. Nixons war policies divided the nation still further,
however: In December 1969, the government instituted the first U.S. draft lottery since World War II, inciting a vast amount of
controversy and causing many young men to flee to Canada to avoid conscription. Tensions ran higher than ever, spurred on by
mass demonstrations and incidents of official violence such those at Kent State in May 1970, when National Guard troops shot
into a group of protesters demonstrating against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, killing four students.
In mid-1971, the publication of the first Pentagon Paperswhich revealed previously confidential details about the wars
conductcaused more and more Americans to question the accountability of the U.S. government and military establishments.
In response to a strong anti-war mandate, Nixon announced the effective end to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in January
1973.

ARTICLE 1
Jsus, nous a plu plus de bombes, plus de terreur sur ce pays que dans l'histoire, que ce qui a
jamais t visit sur toute place dans l'histoire du monde. Nous nous battions une guerre qui ne

pouvait pas tre gagne. La rponse est de ne pas essayer de gagner, la rponse est d'essayer de
foutre le camp. -Dan Prentis
... ce que nous essayions de faire tait la bonne chose. Je pense que toute personne qui, qui dit
que nous tions en quelque sorte moralement rprhensible n'a pas lu beaucoup sur le
communisme, n'a pas pris une allure trs bien ce qui est arriv ce pays aprs les communistes
ont gagn. -Theodore Gatchel
... il tait effrayant parfois, nous nous sommes touchs, et il tait effrayant d'tre dans le combat,
mais en mme temps, il tait incroyablement rvlatrice. Nous sortions des missions parfois, et
rien ne se passerait, et vous asseoir et de raliser ce une belle place, il tait vous serait assis sur
une montagne dans la nuit et regarder dehors et juste, il est un pays magnifique, et on pourrait
penser, pourquoi est ce qui se passe? "-Bob Kerr
... dans la nuit en particulier, en gnral, ils viendraient en place prs de notre camp et une sorte
de feu, le feu en elle, ou le feu sur nos ttes et on entendait les balles siffler par et, vous savez, il
est une sorte de vritable rvlation de penser que quelqu'un que vous ne saviez mme pas
essayait de tuer ... Bois -Ed
... Je pense que ce fut la premire fois sur nos crans de tlvision que nous avons effectivement
vu la guerre qui se joue en direct six, et je pense que l'impact sur la psych amricaine tait
absolument claire et aussi le fait que nous tions pas gagner clairement la guerre. Les Amricains
ont toujours une croyance que la victoire est tout. -E.Gordon Gee
Je pense que de nombreux anciens combattants ont eu la chance quand ils revenaient de `Nam ...
pour se sentir comment il se sentait d'tre noir parce que nous tions tous traits de cette faon,
vous savez, ce genre d'hostilit et d'indiffrence. Et ce fut un temps de personnes qui avaient pas
vraiment t victimes de discrimination ou traits de cette faon, comme des parias, a eu la
chance d'tre traite de cette faon. -Cleveland Kurtz
Je me souviens de la marche dans [le projet de salle d'examen] ... et il semblait ... comme un
abattoir, et ils ont d nous enlever nos vtements, et nous sommes tous assis l et se pencha
sur ... et je eu cette image distincte de btail tant conduit hors de l'abattage, qui est ce qui se
passait. Ici a t le gouvernement des tats-Unis devient de nous tous les jeunes enfants, et vous
savez, finalement, la fin de la ligne, tait quelqu'un, et vous pouvez soit les ont tus ou ils vous
tu. -Tony Ramos

K- Know

Article 1:

Article 2:

Article 3:

W- Want to Know

L- Learned

QUICK WRITE PROMPT: What do you recall from

yesterdays lesson about the Vietnam War? What did you
already know? Is there anything you would like to learn?
Elaborate.
Qu'est-ce que vous vous souvenez de la leon d'hier propos de la guerre du Vietnam ? Qu'est-ce que vous savez
dj ? Y at-il quelque chose que vous aimeriez apprendre ? laborer.